We are thrilled to welcome 11 new mentors into our program! These amazing volunteers successfully cleared a thorough screening process and completed 20 hours of trauma-informed, strength-based training.
Training is a continued part of the screening process and allows us to get to know the mentors better. Their personalities, questions and engagement styles are tools that will be used to help match them with their own mentees.
Over four sessions, our founders, Match Coordinator Bonnie, LMFT and guest speakers Salina Harrigan, LCSW and Jayna Longstreet, MSW covered topics that included the foster care system, adolescent development, implicit bias, mentoring best practices, communication skills, along with program policies and procedures. A representative from The Child Abuse Prevention Center also provided mandated reporter training to our mentors.
The final session included a panel with a current Aging UP mentor, two former mentors to youth in foster care and a former mentee who is now a foster care alumnus. The panel provided insider tips and real-life examples on how to be a supportive mentor.
Our new mentors will soon be matched with their own mentees and begin the exciting path of being a supportive friend and role model to a teen from foster care.
The training sessions were held at Sacramento City College and were graciously funded by Sacramento County Office of Education and a grant from the Women Lawyers of Sacramento. We’re grateful to the additional support of our volunteers Andrea Watson and Dayne Sakazaki, who generously provided onsite assistance during the sessions.
